rdaner
Senior Member
Has anyone been to this new (to me) space? I liked hearing that there was a new performance space in the city but I have no idea what it looks like. I am glad this area is being further developed; I hope that the idea to connect Todmorden to Brickworks with a pedestrian and bicycle bridge pans out in the next decade as it would help create a very unique area.
An update on all of Toronto's theatres and performance spaces, anyone? I would gladly do it but I won't be back in the city for at least a year. I am dying to see renderings of the inside of the theatres at the Festival Centre.
LIVE WITH CULTURE
Dark sheds light on Todmorden arts space
AARON LYNETT/TORONTO STAR
Dancer and storyteller Lisa Pijuan-Nomura is among the 50 artists slated to light up the night at Dark, a free arts celebration at Todmorden Mills on Saturday.
Dance, music, theatre, spoken word and more all part of free evening at historic Toronto site
Aug 20, 2007 04:30 AM
Susan Walker
Entertainment Reporter
Dancer and storyteller Lisa Pijuan-Nomura will tiptoe through the wildflowers. Inpulse Dance artists will trip the light fantastic over the railway tracks. And playwright Sean Dixon will play banjo under a bridge, when art meets nature Saturday night in Toronto's newest entertainment district at the historic Todmorden Mills site.
Meanwhile, on the stage of the newly renovated Papermill Theatre, opera singers, playwrights, players, comics, musicians and a poet will perform.
Marjorie Chan, associate artistic director of Cahoots Theatre Projects, has programmed some 50 artists to light up the night at the Pottery Rd. site for Dark, a free performance festival sponsored by the City of Toronto's Live with Culture operation.
"This is the first year of operation for the Papermill Theatre. In a way, Dark is a way to celebrate that opening (last October) and enjoy the space," says Chan.
She emphasizes the site's accessibility – close to Broadview subway station with TTC bus service – where the Todmorden Mills Museum, the Brewery Gallery and the Don train station are located. Close by are the Brickworks, where a farmer's market is held every weekend, and revitalized natural areas for walkers and cyclists.
Todmodern Mills, with its familiar tall brick tower, dates back to 1796 when John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, ordered the erection of a grist mill for the York colony. Later, a sawmill, brewery, distillery and, by 1827, a paper mill, were built in what became the town of York's industrial heart. Now, after decades of neglect, the site has been restored by the city as a recreational attraction.
For Toronto theatre producers, the 160-seat Papermill is a place for popular shows that have ended their run in the city's small theatres.
"It's a beautiful mix of modern and historic," says Chan of the space. The mill was converted into stables in the 1930s and was refurbished in the 1960s. The theatre boasts a spacious lobby, a baby grand piano and a good complement of lights, says Chan. And there's parking.
"A lot of this festival for me is creating a context," Chan adds. The playwright (China Doll), director and actor commissioned Pijuan- Nomura to create a site-specific piece. "She'll be lighting up the wildflower preserve."
Pijuan-Nomura's one-woman shows, under the banner of Girl Can Create, draw on her background as a physical theatre performer, storyteller and puppeteer.
Inpulse Dance – contact dancers Diana Groenendijk and Suzanne Liska – will perform Off-Track, on and off the railway tracks.
Near the train station, writer and musician Dixon (Billy Nothin', Sam's Last Dance) on claw hammer banjo will join bass player James Thomson to sing songs and ballads while sitting on an old couch like a couple of hobos.
These events in the outdoors will contrast with stage performances in the Papermill Theatre. Onkwehonwe dancer and choreographer Santee Smith will perform a new work, and spoken-word artist BellaDonna (a.k.a. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard) will stir the audiences with her outrage. Comedy comes in the form of "bawdy immigrant" Melissa D'Agostino playing Lupe Under the Latin Moon and comedy improv troupe The Wrecking Crew with Jane Luk and Gord Oxley.
The Fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre Company is presenting The Hunting Story by David Yee. And Hyun Liya Choi will do a performance piece entitled Miss Asiana.
Claire Calnan and Weyni Mengesha of The Amy Project direct I am Her, a short multidisciplinary piece performed by young women in a mentoring project.
From the Actors Repertory Company comes Luigi Pirandello's I'm Dreaming, But Am I?, a wonderful play that weaves memory and dream to recount the story of a turbulent love affair by the master of the one-act play.
Wayne Strongman of Tapestry New Opera Works will present excerpts from new opera and the five-member Korean drum ensemble Samul Nori Canada will do two traditional drum works.
And playwrights Lisa Codrington, Marcia Johnson, Elyne Quan, Mark Brownell, Mike McPhaden, Edwige Jean-Pierre and Joseph Jomo Pierre will each give a 15-minute reading from a new work.
Dark runs from 7 until 11 p.m. and encompasses a wide range of Toronto talent, with emphasis on the innovative and work-in-progress. Admission is free.